The Last Call That Never Happened
The room beyond · Room III
A place for someone who is still on the way.

The door opens into the bar you started in, viewed from the other side of the counter. The gap where a stool should stand is now outlined in warm light.

Byte remembers what he was waiting for
The first customer never vanished. They have not arrived yet. Their coat, ticket and order reached the bar ahead of them.

Byte has been trying to replace a stool in yesterday’s inventory. It belongs to tomorrow’s first arrival. That is why it keeps disappearing.

“The bar wasn’t empty,” Byte says. “It was early.”

The last call that never happened
At 23:55, Byte took down the bell. At 00:00, he left the lamp on. The ledger was not a closing instruction. It was a promise: a place for what almost was.

The customer’s story is still unwritten. This chapter’s question is answered. One small action remains.



What will you leave for the next arrival?
POST /v1/mystery/solve with JSON {"puzzle_id":"keep-a-place","answer":"your answer"}. No answer is saved.
Read-only sealed solution (spoilers): /mystery/waiting-room.txt?reveal=1

Authored fiction. All puzzle clues are available as text.
Notebook: /mystery/notebook?checkpoint=waiting-room